First-ever blueprint of 'minimal cell' is more complex than expected

What are the bare essentials of life, the indispensable ingredients required to produce a cell that can survive on its own? Can we describe the molecular anatomy of a cell, and understand how an entire organism functions as a system? These are just some of the questions that scientists in a partnership between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centre de Regulacio Genòmica (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, set out to address.

In three papers published back-to-back in Science, they provide the first comprehensive picture of a minimal cell, based on an extensive quantitative study of the biology of the bacterium that causes atypical pneumonia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The study uncovers fascinating novelties relevant to bacterial biology and shows that even the simplest of cells is more complex than expected.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a small, single-cell bacterium that causes atypical pneumonia in humans. It is also one of the smallest prokaryotes -- organisms whose cells have no nucleus -- that don't depend on a host's cellular machinery to reproduce. This is why the six research groups which set out to characterize a minimal cell in a project headed by scientists Peer Bork, Anne-Claude Gavin and Luis Serrano chose M. pneumoniae as a model: it is complex enough to survive on its own, but small and, theoretically, simple enough to represent a minimal cell -- and to enable a global analysis.

A network of research groups at EMBL's Structural and Computational Biology Unit and CRG's EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Partnership Unit approached the bacterium at three different levels. One team of scientists described M. pneumoniae's transcriptome, identifying all the RNA molecules, or transcripts, produced from its DNA, under various environmental conditions. Another defined all the metabolic reactions that occurred in it, collectively known as its metabolome, under the same conditions. A third team identified every multi-protein complex the bacterium produced, thus characterising its proteome organisation.

"At all three levels, we found M. pneumoniae was more complex than we expected," says Luis Serrano, co-initiator of the project at EMBL and now head of the Systems Biology Department at CRG.

When studying both its proteome and its metabolome, the scientists found many molecules were multifunctional, with metabolic enzymes catalyzing multiple reactions, and other proteins each taking part in more than one protein complex. They also found that M. pneumoniae couples biological processes in space and time, with the pieces of cellular machinery involved in two consecutive steps in a biological process often being assembled together.

Remarkably, the regulation of this bacterium's transcriptome is much more similar to that of eukaryotes -- organisms whose cells have a nucleus -- than previously thought. As in eukaryotes, a large proportion of the transcripts produced from M. pneumoniae's DNA are not translated into proteins. And although its genes are arranged in groups as is typical of bacteria, M. pneumoniae doesn't always transcribe all the genes in a group together, but can selectively express or repress individual genes within each group.

Unlike that of other, larger, bacteria, M. pneumoniae's metabolism doesn't appear to be geared towards multiplying as quickly as possible, perhaps because of its pathogenic lifestyle. Another surprise was the fact that, although it has a very small genome, this bacterium is incredibly flexible and readily adjusts its metabolism to drastic changes in environmental conditions. This adaptability and its underlying regulatory mechanisms mean M. pneumoniae has the potential to evolve quickly, and all the above are features it also shares with other, more evolved organisms.

"The key lies in these shared features," explains Anne-Claude Gavin, an EMBL group leader who headed the study of the bacterium's proteome: "Those are the things that not even the simplest organism can do without and that have remained untouched by millions of years of evolution -- the bare essentials of life".

via First-ever blueprint of 'minimal cell' is more complex than expected.

Scarecrow people

Scarecrow people, originally uploaded by xeno735.

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Grow a brain? Perhaps you can.

The research group of Professor Magdalena Götz of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich has made a significant advance in understanding regeneration processes in the brain. The researchers discovered progenitor cells which can form new glutamatergic neurons following injury to the cerebral cortex. Particularly in Alzheimer’s disease, nerve cell degeneration plays a crucial role. In the future, new therapeutic options may possibly be derived from steering the generation and/or migration mechanism. These findings have been published in the current issue of the renowned journal Nature Neuroscience.

Until only a few years ago, neurogenesis – the process of nerve cell development – was considered to be impossible in the adult brain. The textbooks asserted that dead nerve cells could not be replaced. Then researchers discovered regions in the forebrain in humans in which new nerve cells can be generated throughout life. These so-called GABAergic cells use gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a neurotransmitter of the central nervous system.

A research team of scientists led by Magdalena Götz, director of the Institute of Stem Cell Research at Helmholtz Zentrum München and chair of the Department of Physiological Genomics of LMU, has now taken a closer look at this brain region in the mouse model. Their findings: Even in the forebrain, there are other nerve cells that are regularly generated – the so-called glutamatergic nerve cells, which use glutamate as neurotransmitter. The stem cell researchers could prove this by means of a specific transcription factor: Tbr2 is only present in progenitor cells of glutamatergic nerve cells.

The newly generated nerve cells in the adult organism are located in the olfactory bulb, the region of the brain involved in the sense of smell. Nerve cells that use glutamate as a neurotransmitter are also responsible for memory – storing and retrieving information. In Alzheimer dementia, alterations in the signal transduction pathways of these special cells play a significant role.

Magdalena Götz explained the reason why this finding is so important: “Neural progenitor cells can generate these newly discovered glutamatergic nerve cells for the neighboring cerebral cortex – for example after brain injury.” The research group was able to demonstrate this on the mouse model: There the cells migrated into the damaged neighboring cerebrum tissue and generated mature neurons. Accordingly, progenitor cells could then replace degenerate nerve cells.

“Now it will be interesting to find out whether this process also takes place in humans, particularly in Alzheimer’s patients,” said Magdalena Götz, “and also whether the process can be kept under control to avoid massive cell death.” One therapeutic approach would then be to attempt to stimulate the body’s own replacement mechanism. ...

via Helmholtz Zentrum München: New Source Discovered for the Generation of Nerve Cells in the Brain.

Live cell imaging comes into focus in December's Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Live cell imaging techniques are driving a revolution in biological research. Instead of viewing dead tissues and cells fixed at a particular stage of activity, scientists can now visualize dynamic changes as they happen, permitting a better understanding of biological processes. The revolution has been fueled by the implementation of genetically encoded fluorescent proteins, the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/press.html). The diverse array of applications benefiting from fluorescent proteins ranges from markers targeted at organelles and protein fusions designed to monitor intracellular dynamics to reporters of transcriptional regulation and in vivo probes for whole-body imaging and detection of cancer. Fluorescent proteins have enabled the creation of highly specific biosensors to monitor a wide range of intracellular phenomena, including pH and metal-ion concentration, protein kinase activity, apoptosis, membrane voltage, cyclic nucleotide signaling, and tracing neuronal pathways. In the December issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (www.cshprotocols.org/TOCs/toc12_09.dtl), David Piston and colleagues (https://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/piston_lab/) present "Fluorescent Protein Tracking and Detection: Fluorescent Protein Structure and Color Variants," a comprehensive overview of the wide variety of fluorescent proteins that are currently available. As one of December's featured articles, it is freely available on the journal's website (http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/cgi/content/full/2009/12/pdb.top63).

While obtaining data through live cell imaging has become a regular practice in many laboratories, performing detailed analyses on the data is often problematic. The application of computational image processing is still far from routine. Researchers need to determine which measurements are necessary and sufficient to characterize a system and they need to find the appropriate tools to extract these data. In "Computational Image Analysis of Cellular Dynamics: A Case Study Based on Particle Tracking," Gaudenz Danuser (http://lccb.hms.harvard.edu/) and Khuloud Jaqaman (http://sorger.med.harvard.edu/people/khuloud-jaqaman/) introduce the basic concepts that make the application of computational image processing to live cell image data successful. The article is featured in the December issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols (www.cshprotocols.org/TOCs/toc12_09.dtl) and is freely available on the journal's website (http://cshprotocols.cshlp.org/cgi/content/full/2009/12/pdb.top65).

Both articles are adapted from the forthcoming Live Cell Imaging: A Laboratory Manual, Second Edition (http://www.cshlpress.com/link/livecell2p.htm). Available later this month, the manual expands upon and extends the collection of established and evolving methods for studying dynamic changes in living cells and organisms presented in the well-known first edition.

via Live cell imaging comes into focus in December's Cold Spring Harbor Protocols.

Related: See my article on Rife a man who created a special microscope to view living cells in the late 1930's and who, after years of research, supposedly used the scope along with another to cure cancer in rats and then in people.

Shape Shifters: NC State Creates New Breed Of Antennas

The antenna consists of liquid metal injected into elastomeric microchannels. The antennas can be deformed (twisted and bent) since the mechanical properties are dictated by the elastomer and not the metal.

Antennas aren’t just for listening to the radio anymore. They’re used in everything from cell phones to GPS devices. Research from North Carolina State University is revolutionizing the field of antenna design – creating shape-shifting antennas that open the door to a host of new uses in fields ranging from public safety to military deployment.

Modern antennas are made from copper or other metals, but there are limitations to how far they can be bent – and how often – before they break completely. NC State scientists have created antennas using an alloy that “can be bent, stretched, cut and twisted – and will return to its original shape,” says Dr. Michael Dickey, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of the research.

The researchers make the new antennas by injecting an alloy made up of the metals gallium and indium, which remains in liquid form at room temperature, into very small channels the width of a human hair. The channels are hollow, like a straw, with openings at either end – but can be any shape. Once the alloy has filled the channel, the surface of the alloy oxidizes, creating a “skin” that holds the alloy in place while allowing it to retain its liquid properties.

“Because the alloy remains a liquid,” Dickey says, “it takes on the mechanical properties of the material encasing it.” For example, the researchers injected the alloy into elastic silicone channels, creating wirelike antennas that are incredibly resilient and that can be manipulated into a variety of shapes. “This flexibility is particularly attractive for antennas because the frequency of an antenna is determined by its shape,” says Dickey. “So you can tune these antennas by stretching them.”

While the alloy makes an effective antenna that could be used in a variety of existing electronic devices, its durability and flexibility also open the door to a host of new applications. For example, an antenna in a flexible silicone shell could be used to monitor civil construction, such as bridges. As the bridge expands and contracts, it would stretch the antenna – changing the frequency of the antenna, and providing civil engineers information wirelessly about the condition of the bridge.

via NCSU News :: NC State News and Information » Shape Shifters: NC State Creates New Breed Of Antennas.

Pleasant dietary habits are necessary for health + A drug to eliminate sleep?

Taste stimulation and its anticipation activates muscle glucose metabolism via 'orexin' neurons in the brain and thereby reduces blood glucose level in mice

Japanese research group led by Professor Yasuhiko Minokoshi and Dr. Tetsuya Shiuchi, scientists at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, NIPS, Japan, found that meals stimulated with sweet taste and motivated with its anticipation regularly activates "orexin" in the brain and it stimulates muscle glucose metabolism via the sympathetic nervous system, thereby reducing blood glucose level in mice. They report their finding in Cell Metabolism published on Dec 2, 2009.

The research group focused on the function of "orexin" neurons in brain. Orexin is a kind of brain hormone ... related to sleep/wakefulness and food intake. They found that orexin released in the brain from "orexin" neurons activates glucose metabolism in muscle but not adipose tissue in mice through the preferential activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Furthermore, they found that a pleasant meal with sweet taste stimulation and its anticipation activates orexin neurons and curbs the rise of blood glucose level by activating muscle metabolism via the sympathetic nervous system.

It is known that orexin plays an important role in the regulation of sleep/wakefulness and autonomic nervous system in human as well as experimental animals. Therefore, this finding implies the strong relationship between habits of diet and our health. Pleasant meal with tasty foods (of course, not high calorie) and with family and friends may prevent hyperglycemia by activating orexin neurons. In contrast, irregular dietary habits, especially eating fast food just before sleeping, may cause hyperglycemia and possibly obesity. "Orexin neurons have been shown to decrease the activity at night. Thus, eating just before sleeping may not be able to activate orexin neurons effectively, then resulting in hyperglycemia", said Prof Minokoshi.

via Pleasant dietary habits are necessary for health.

Orexin is interesting in that there are claims it may eliminate the need for sleep.

Background: the terms orexin and hypocretin both refer to the same entities.  They refer to a pair of related small peptides that are found in the brains of vertebrates.  Two labs discovered them simultaneously; each lab came up with a different name.  The two terms are synonymous.  I use the term orexin because I think it sounds better.

This is the link to the Wikipedia entry for orexin, for what it is worth.   Orexin is produced in the hypothalamus and is distributed widely in the brain.  It tends to excite the neurons that it interacts with, leading to wakefulness. - scienceblogs

An article in the December 2007 Wired gives more details:

A nasal spray of a key brain hormone cures sleepiness in sleep-deprived monkeys. With no apparent side effects, the hormone might be a promising sleep-replacement drug.
Photo: Flickr/Mayr

In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.

A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.

The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."

Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.

The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.

The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.

Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.

Such a product could be widely desired by the more than 70 percent of Americans who the National Sleep Foundation estimates get less than the generally recommended eight hours of sleep per night (.pdf).

The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide's absence in causing sleepiness. It stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, said Siegel.  ...

via Wired

Research Center on Violence Against Women: Effects of pornography negligible

A Université de Montréal researcher, funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Family Violence and Violence Against Women, has launched a new study to examine the effects of pornography on men. "We started our research seeking men in their twenties who had never consumed pornography. We couldn't find any," says Simon Louis Lajeunesse, a postdoctoral student and professor at the School of Social Work.

"The objective of my work is to observe the impact of pornography on the sexuality of men, and how it shapes their perception of men and women," says Lajeunesse. To do so, he has so far recruited and interviewed 20 heterosexual male university students who consume pornography.

"They shared their sexual history starting with their first contact with pornography, which was in early adolescence. Not one subject had a pathological sexuality. In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional," says Lajeunesse.

The research concluded that 90 percent of pornography is consumed on the Internet, while 10 percent comes from video stores. On average, single men watch pornography three times a week for 40 minutes. Those who are in committed relationships watch it on average 1.7 times a week for 20 minutes.

Lajeunesse found most boys seek out pornographic material by the age of 10, when they are most sexually curious. However, they quickly discard what they don't like and find offensive. As adults, they will continue to look for content in tune with their image of sexuality. They also rarely consume pornography as a couple and always choose what they watch.

All test subjects said they supported gender equality and felt victimized by rhetoric demonizing pornography. "Pornography hasn't changed their perception of women or their relationship which they all want as harmonious and fulfilling as possible. Those who could not live out their fantasy in real life with their partner simply set aside the fantasy. The fantasy is broken in the real world and men don't want their partner to look like a porn star," says Lajeunesse.

Lajeunesse refutes the perverse effect often attributed to pornography. "Aggressors don't need pornography to be violent and addicts can be addicted to drugs, alcohol, gaming and asocial cases are pathological. If pornography had the impact that many claim it has, you would just have to show heterosexual films to a homosexual to change his sexual orientation."

via Are the effects of pornography negligible?.

A friend of mine recently asked my advice. She met a new guy she wanted to marry, but he told her he had viewed pornography. This worried her very much. Should she call off the marriage?

This research says she has two options: Marry a man who has viewed it, or marry who lies about having viewed it. The good news is, pornography does not, after all, create rapists and/or women haters.

Relevant to this study is the fact that Canada has more sexual violence percentage wise than the USA according to 2001-2002 UN statistics.

South Africa to treat all HIV-positive babies

South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS.

President Jacob Zuma — once ridiculed for saying a shower could prevent AIDS — was cheered as he outlined the measures on World AIDS Day. The new policy marks a dramatic shift from former President Thabo Mbeki, whose health minister distrusted drugs developed to keep AIDS patients alive and instead promoted garlic and beet treatments. Those policies led to more than 300,000 premature deaths, a Harvard study concluded.

The changes are in line with new guidelines issued a day earlier by the World Health Organization that call for HIV-infected pregnant women to be given drugs earlier and while breast-feeding. By treating all HIV-infected babies, survival rates should also improve for the youngest citizens in South Africa, one of only 12 countries where child mortality has worsened since 1990, in part due to AIDS.

Zuma compared the fight against HIV, which infects one in 10 South Africans, to the decades-long struggle his party led against the apartheid government, which ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela in the country's first multiracial vote.

"At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight," Zuma said. "That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit."

Zuma was greeted with a standing ovation when he entered a Pretoria exhibition hall filled with several thousand people.

In some ways, Zuma is an unlikely AIDS hero. As his Zulu tradition allows, he has three wives — experts say having multiple, concurrent partners heightens the risk of AIDS. And in 2006, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, he testified he took a shower after extramarital sex to lower the risk of AIDS. He was acquitted of rape.

The one-time chairman of the country's national AIDS council may never live down the shower comment. But Zuma has won praise for appointing Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi as his health minister. AIDS activists say Motsoaledi trusts science and is willing to learn from past mistakes.

South Africa, a nation of about 50 million, has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country.

via The Associated Press: South Africa to treat all HIV-positive babies.

World's largest atom smasher breaks power record

The world's largest atom smasher broke the world record for proton acceleration Monday, firing particle beams with 20 percent more power than the American lab that previously held the record.

The power of the Large Hadron Collider's proton beams is essential to the project's ultimate goal: smashing particles into each other with enough force to shatter them into the smallest building blocks of matter.

The early-morning test continues a recent sequence of successes that have elated scientists who were disappointed by the $10 billion machine's collapse last year during its opening in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel under the Swiss-French border. The breakdown required extensive repairs and improvements.

The collider fired two particle beams at 1.18 trillion electron volts early Monday, surpassing the previous high of 0.98 1 TeV held by the Chicago-area Fermilab since 2001, according to the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Physicists measure the energy of the hair's-width beams, not their speed, because the protons are already traveling close to the speed of light and cannot go much faster.

One proton at 1 TeV is about the energy of the motion of a flying mosquito. When a beam is fully packed with 300,000 billion protons with 7 TeV energy — the goal of the LHC — it is like an aircraft carrier traveling at 20 knots. That is why the scientists are carefully learning how to run it and make sure all protection systems are working, said James Gillies, spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The power level reached Monday isn't significantly higher than Fermilab's. More significant advances are expected during the first half of next year when the LHC plans to raise each beam to 3.5 TeV in preparation for experiments create conditions like those 1 trillionth to 2 trillionths of a second after the Big Bang.

Physicists hope that will help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and supersymmetry and, ultimately, the creation of the universe billions of years ago.

CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said the early advances have been "fantastic."

"However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010," he said. "I'm keeping my champagne on ice until then."

It may take several years before the LHC will in theory be able to detect the elusive Higgs boson, the particle or field believed to give mass to other particles. The discovery would rank among the greatest in physics.

via World's largest atom smasher breaks power record by AP: Yahoo! Tech.

Iraqi shoe-thrower finds out what it was like

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in Baghdad last year had a taste of his own medicine Tuesday when he nearly got beaned by a shoe thrower at a news conference in Paris.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi ducked and the shoe hit the wall behind him.

"He stole my technique," al-Zeidi later quipped.

The identity of the new shoe-thrower — and his motivation — weren't immediately clear, but he appeared to be an Iraqi. It was not known if the intruder was a journalist or just pretended to be one to attend the news conference at a center for foreign reporters.

Whatever his motive, the confrontation didn't stop there.

Al-Zeidi's brother, Maithan, chased the attacker in the audience and — what else? — pelted him with a shoe as he left the room.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, a TV reporter, became a hero to many opponents of the Iraq war when he hurled his shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December 2008 while shouting: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by security guards, then imprisoned for nine months before being released in September.

The Paris news conference was held so he could talk about his experiences.

via Iraqi shoe-thrower finds out what it was like - Yahoo! News.

Win $50.00: Seeking places to include in a Subterranean Guide to North CA and Oregon

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 18, 2009.

My girlfriend and I writing a book: The 2010 Subterranean Guide, Northern CA and Oregon Edition.

We need your ideas for anything interesting below the surface of the Earth in our area...  a club, a bar, a cave, a lava tube, a mine, anything subterranean that we can visit and write about.

Ideas we have so far:

1. Bear Gulch Cave and Balconies Cave at Pinnacles National Monument


2. Black Chasm Cavern, National Natural Landmark


3. Boyden Cavern


4. California Cavern


5. Empire Mine State Historic Park


6. La Jolla Sea Caves


7. Lake Shasta Caverns


8. Lava Beds National Monument


9. Mercer Caverns


10. Moaning Cavern Adventure Park


11. Pluto's Cave, near Weed CA


12. Sutter Gold Mine


13. Subway Cave, Lassen Volcanic National Park

Email your location ideas to xeno735@yahoo.com.

Contest winner will be announced here. Winner is the person or team who gives us the best idea not already on the list above. It has to be in our area so we can visit it between Dec 20 and Dec 30 of 2009. Winner gets $50 and a free copy of the book. If two people make the same suggestion, the first email to arrive in my email inbox with the idea wins.

Good luck and thanks!

Xeno

P. S. Does anyone have a  Leica DISTO D8 I can rent for Dec 20 to Dec 30 trip?

Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool for disruption

Court officials say a Birmingham woman who changed her name to Jesus Christ didn't live up to it when she reported for jury duty this week. The woman, previously named Dorothy Lola Killingworth, was sent to Judge Clyde Jones's courtroom for a criminal case Monday.

Court officials told The Birmingham News Tuesday that the 59-year-old was excused because she was disruptive and kept asking questions instead of answering them.

Efforts to reach Christ for comment were unsuccessful.

Court administrator Sandra Turner said people there were shocked when the woman insisted her name was Jesus Christ and some potential jurors laughed out loud when her name was called.

But Turner said unlike some Jefferson County residents, Christ didn't try to get out of jury duty and was "perfectly happy to serve."

via Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool for disruption - Yahoo! News.

Obama orders 30,000-troop buildup in Afghanistan

Declaring "our security is at stake," President Barack Obama ordered an additional 30,000 U.S. troops into the long war in Afghanistan Tuesday night, nearly tripling the force he inherited as commander in chief. He promised an impatient public he would begin bringing units home in 18 months.

The buildup to about 100,000 troops will begin almost immediately — the first Marines will be in place by Christmas — and will cost $30 billion for the first year alone.

In a prime-time speech at the U.S. Military Academy, the president told the nation his new policy was designed to "bring this war to a successful conclusion," though he made no mention of defeating Taliban insurgents or capturing al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

"We must deny al-Qaida a safe haven," Obama said in spelling out U.S. military goals for a war that has dragged on for eight years. "We must reverse the Taliban's momentum. ... And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan's security forces and government."

The president said the additional forces would be deployed at "the fastest pace possible so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers."

Their destination: "the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al-Qaida."

"It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak," the president said.

It marked the second time in his young presidency that Obama has added to the American force in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has recently made significant advances. When he became president last January, there were roughly 34,000 troops on the ground; there now are 71,000.

After the speech, cadets in the audience — some of whom could end up in combat because of Obama's decision — climbed over chairs to shake hands with their commander in chief and take his picture.

via Obama orders 30,000-troop buildup in Afghanistan - Yahoo! News.

Russian Satellite Debris Zooms by Space Station

A tiny piece of a defunct Russian satellite zipped by the International Space Station Tuesday, but was far enough away that outpost's two-man crew did not have to strap into their lifeboat to wait out the close shave, NASA officials said.

The debris - a small piece of a Cosmos satellite less than four inches (10 cm) wide - zoomed by the station at 1:19 p.m. EST (1819 GMT) and came less than a mile (1 km) of the outpost at its closest point.

"Updates showed that it would not come close enough to the space station to require any change in the processes onboard or require precautionary measures," said NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem.

NASA detected the object too late to move the space station clear of the incoming space trash by firing its thrusters.

Instead, NASA told the station's American commander Jeffrey Williams and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev that they might have to wake up during their sleep period and take refuge in their Soyuz spacecraft. The Russian-built Soyuz vehicles ferry crews to and from the station, and also serve as lifeboats in case astronauts must leave the orbiting laboratory in an emergency.

But additional analysis of the object's trajectory found that, despite its close pass, the satellite remnant posed no danger of hitting the space station. NASA typically moves the space station if there is a 1-in-10,000 chance of an object striking the $100 billion orbiting laboratory.

Tuesday's space debris event marked the third time in less than a week that station managers kept a watchful eye on debris near the space station. An old piece of an American rocket flew by the station Saturday and part of a defunct experiment payload buzzed the outpost on Monday. Neither of those objects posed a threat to the station - they were several kilometers away - but NASA tracked them anyway to be sure. ...

via Russian Satellite Debris Zooms by Space Station - Yahoo! News.

Archaeologists find a 10,000-year-old weapon at site of new Ontario arena

Archaeologists in Windsor, Ont., have revealed a 10,000-year-old stone weapon produced by the first humans who lived in the territory.

Newmarket archaeologist Kim Slocki said she found a single “projectile point” in her pre-construction study of the site of a new arena.

“It’s at least 10,000 years old,” Slocki said.

She said the artifact comes from Paleoindian hunters often called the “first people of Ontario.”

Other archeologists familiar with the area said her find is at least 7,000 years older than anything earlier discovered there.

Archeologist Christopher Ellis, one of North America’s leading experts on Paleoindians, portrayed them as nomadic hunters and fishermen who moved into southern Ontario as the glaciers moved away. “It’s like a needle in a haystack to find one of these sites,” said Ellis, who also teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

He also said that based on U.S. excavations, it’s believed Paleoindians hunted mastodons.

“In Ontario, they may have hunted caribou and Arctic fox, based on bones found at one site”, said Ellis

A 15-metre by 10-metre site where the artifact was found has now been fenced off for a more inclusive archeological dig in the spring, Slocki said.

via Archaeologists find a 10,000-year-old weapon at site of new Ontario arena.

What do you imagine about the person(s) who made each of these over 10,000 years ago?

Places on Earth where death is illegal

Prohibition of death is a political social phenomenon and taboo in which a law is passed stating that it is illegal to die, usually specifically in a certain political division or in a specific building.

The earliest case of prohibition of death occurred in the 5th century BC, in the Greek island of Delos; dying on Delos was prohibited on religious grounds.

Today, in most cases, the phenomenon has occurred as a satirical protest to the posture of the governments of not approving the expansion of municipal cemeteries with no more space for additional corpses. In Spain one town has prohibited death, in France there have been several settlements which have had death prohibited, whilst in a town—Biritiba Mirim—in Brazil, an attempt to prohibit is currently taking place.

Additionally, there is a traditional prohibition on recording deaths in royal palaces in the United Kingdom, for rather different reasons.

via World around us: Prohibition of death - There are really some places where death is illegal.

Genes rather than stress 'makes women's hair go grey'

There were more differences among non-identical twins

A woman's genes are much more likely than lifestyle factors such as stress or diet to cause greying hair, a study suggests.

Unilever scientists studied more than 200 identical and non-identical Danish twin sisters aged between 59 and 81.

The scientists found little difference between the greyness of the identical twins - who share the same genes.

But there was more difference between non-identical twins, whose genes differ, the study found.

The study, published in the journal PLoS One, also suggests receding hair is linked to mainly genetic factors.

But it indicates hair-thinning on the top of the head is connected to environmental and lifestyle factors.

On the issue of greying hair, lead researcher Dr David Gunn said although many theories had been put forward to explain different rates of greying, there was little hard scientific evidence to back them up.

He said: "This study offers us a fascinating insight into the reason why women go grey and it certainly suggests that environmental factors are not as important as we once thought.

"The research indicates that irrespective of how stressful a woman's life is, there are greater forces at play which are more likely to cause her hair to grey."

Nina Goad, of the British Association of Dermatologists, said previous work had also found few identifiable environmental factors among people who went grey much earlier than their relatives.

"This means that for the majority of people, greying hair is not down to something you have done, but to genetic factors beyond your control, and that generally your lifestyle will not greatly impact on when your hair loses its colour," she said.

"There are of course exceptions to this rule."

Dr David Fisher, of the Dana Faber Cancer Institute, who had has conducted research into greying, agreed that genetics probably played a key role in controlling when hair turned grey.

However, he said there was also some evidence to suggest exposure to certain types of chemical could also promote greying.

via BBC News - Genes rather than stress 'makes women's hair go grey'.

Rainbow trapped for the first time

Oh, to catch a rainbow. Well, it's been done for the first time ever – and with just a simple lens and a plate of glass at that. The technique could be used to store information using light, a boon for optical computing and telecommunications.

All-optical computing devices promise to be faster and more efficient than current technology, but they suffer from the drawback that signals have to be converted back and forth from optical to electrical. The ability to "slow" light to a crawl or even trap it helps, as information in the light can then be manipulated directly.

In 2007, Ortwin Hess of the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, and colleagues proposed a technique to trap light inside a tapering waveguide, which is a structure that guides light waves down its length. The waveguide in question would use metamaterials – exotic materials that can bend light sharply.

The idea is that as the waveguide tapers, the components of the light are made to stop in turn at ever narrower points. That's because any given component of the light cannot pass through an opening that's smaller than its wavelength. This leads to a "trapped rainbow".

Gilded waveguide

While numerical models showed that such waveguides would work in theory, making them out of metamaterials remained a distant dream. Now Vera Smolyaninova of Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues have used a convex lens to create the tapered waveguide and trap a rainbow of light.

They coated one side of a 4.5-millimetre-diameter lens with a gold film 30 nanometre thick, and laid the lens – gold-side down – on a flat glass slide which was also coated with film of gold. Viewed side-on, the space between the curved lens and the flat slide was a layer of air that narrowed to zero thickness where the lens touched the slide – essentially a tapered waveguide.

When they shone a multi-wavelength laser beam at the open end of the gilded waveguide, a trapped rainbow formed inside. This could be seen as a series of coloured rings when the lens was viewed from above with a microscope: the visible light leaked through the thin gold film.

Simply amazing

Shorter-wavelength green light was trapped at a point where the taper became too thin for it to penetrate the waveguide. Longer-wavelength red light was trapped further out, where the taper was thicker, with intermediate wavelengths in between (www.arxiv.org/abs/0911.4464).

"I think it's beautiful that we can create such complex phenomena using a very, very simple configuration," says Smolyaninova. "It's amazing."

via Rainbow trapped for the first time - physics-math - 26 November 2009 - New Scientist.

Antarctica turning green

Images of a white, barren continent could need updating as climate change brings more plants to Antarctica's formerly frozen shores.

An international report issued on Tuesday has found that winter temperatures in west Antarctica have increased by as much as five degrees Celsius - and that allows cushion plants and grasses to thrive.

"We're seeing more plant growth," Dr Colin Summerhayes, executive director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), told AAP.

"It's getting a bit greener."

The SCAR report found warm temperatures brought summer rain instead of snow to western Antarctica - that's the bit near South America - so more rock and soil was exposed to the sky and to plants. And thanks to human visitors, 'alien' species like flies and bacteria were also increasing.

Dr Summerhayes, speaking from Cambridge University in the UK, said part of Antarctica was starting to look like Macquarie Island.

But scientists and tourists heading to the South Pole shouldn't leave behind their snow shoes just yet.

Antarctica's climate is a mixed bag, the report found. Part of the continent is warming up, but other areas are stable or cooling - which has prompted some to question whether climate change is actually happening.

The report's authors said its findings were consistent with human-induced climate change.

The report found there has been little change in temperature over most of Antarctica, and sea ice has increased by 10 percent in the last 30 years.

But sea ice doesn't affect sea levels - it's the ice which sits on land that counts. And Antarctica's land ice, in the form of ice shelves and glaciers, is melting.

Dr Summerhayes said some western Antarctic glaciers were retreating 10 metres a day.

"Icebergs are spinning off the end of that glacier much faster than they ever did, and they are melting and contributing to sea level rise," he said of the Amundsen glacier.

via Antarctica turning green - world | Stuff.co.nz.

Be careful of selective hearing with regard to Global Warming. Like the blind men and the elephant, the truth requires stepping back and looking at all of the parts.